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Egyptians Crave Deeds More Than Words

A worker on Tuesday at Cairo University, where President Obama is to deliver a speech to the Muslim world on Thursday.Credit
Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

CAIRO — This city has been painted and paved, manicured and swept clean. Every coffee house and every corner has been buzzing with talk of President Obama’s speech to the Muslim world on Thursday. But all the polish and all the excitement will fade shortly after Air Force One lifts off, most people here say, if nothing changes in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Consensus is rare in the culturally diverse and politically divided Islamic world, but on this point there is unanimity, according to diplomats, political analysts, government officials and average citizens from around the region.

“All American presidents say they will resolve the problem,” said Ahmed Fayek, 22, a student at Cairo University, as he sat outside the freshly painted, swept and landscaped campus where more than 75 years ago the father of Islamic radicalism, Sayyid Qutb, earned a degree in education. “We hope he really does.”

“No, he has to,” said Lamees Muhammad, 18, another student at the school. “The Palestinian problem is the most important. We need real deeds.”

The president and his aides have tried to tamp down expectations, framing the speech as one step in a continuing diplomatic push. And the Arab world has jaundiced memories of lofty promises that have gone unfulfilled.

“He can say very beautiful words, he can make a speech in which he tells the Muslim world that there has been a misunderstanding, that we look forward to a new era, that we respect you and we love you, but all of this would be considered mere rhetoric,” said Abdel Raouf al-Reedy, chairman of the Egyptian Council on Foreign Relations and a former ambassador to the United States. “If he is serious, the test is what he is going to say on the Palestinian problem.”

While his audience is deeply skeptical, it is also excited.

After so many years of feeling bullied and vilified by the Bush White House, many Arabs are greeting President Obama’s visit as a historic moment, and an opportunity.

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“I am looking at the speech like Nixon going to China or Sadat going to Jerusalem,” said Abdel Moneim Said, director of Egypt’s premier research center, the state financed Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “We forget how just a year ago neo-cons were facing the problems in the world in terms of the clash of civilizations.”

Mr. Obama’s visit is also something of a spiritual tonic here. It has inspired a remarkable citywide cleanup while setting off a resurgence in pride in Egypt’s historic — if faded — role as the most important Arab center.

“People actually want to like him,” said Nabil Fahmy, a former ambassador to the United States and now dean of the school of public affairs at the American University in Cairo. “He represents change. He represents for them the best in America and he represents someone who seems committed to diplomacy.”

For Mr. Obama to win favor, however, he needs to address challenges facing the Arab world, from poverty and inadequate education systems to limits on democracy and human rights. He also appears mindful of the need to address issues of democracy and human rights while not seeming to criticize or lecture the authoritarian leaders of the region, whose help he needs.

“He has to address those issues carefully so that it is not seen as another person coming to give us lessons,” said Ali el-Garouche, head of Arab administration at the Arab League. “He has to present them in the framework of ‘In order to improve the general situation, you must also get on top of this and that.’ ”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: On Eve of Obama’s Visit, Egyptians Crave Deeds More Than Words. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe